Racino developer is betting that Onondaga County wants a convention center hotel more than it doesn't want a racino

View full sizeMichelle Gabel / The Post-StandardCharlie Roman, of Daniella's Steak House in the Inn at the Fairgrounds, wants developer Thomas Wilmot to build a horse racing and casino project in Geddes. He's made a sign welcoming the project.

To build the state-licensed “racino,” Wilmot doesn’t need the state Legislature’s OK. Instead, three men on the Racing and Wagering Board and one director at the New York Lottery have the power to approve or deny Wilmot’s applications to bring horse racing and gambling to the county.

But before Lottery Director Gordon Medenica can award the “video lottery terminal” license to Wilmot, the chairman of Wilmorite Inc., a local law must authorize the VLTs, according to the New York Lottery. That potentially puts the biggest hurdle for the proposed racino before the Onondaga County Legislature.

That news caught some off guard this week, including County Executive Joanie Mahoney, who sees the racino as a “means to an end” to get a hotel for the county’s ailing convention center. Twice in the past decade the county Legislature has considered allowing OTB, only to reject the idea. Onondaga County is one of only 13 New York counties without OTB.

With that history, Mahoney said, “I don’t know that anyone can count on it at this point.”

Wilmot is more optimistic when it comes to the county Legislature, even though he said he hasn’t met with any of the 19 lawmakers. That’s because he holds the promise of a convention center hotel in his pocket. “The county wouldn’t let us do the racino without the hotel,” he said Thursday.

Wilmot sees the racino and the hotel as a package deal. Wilmot has an option to build a $95 million Westin Hotel near the Oncenter, a deal that has stalled for five years for lack of financing despite having $15 million in state money set aside for the project.

Wilmot believes a racino would help him secure loans to build the hotel. For more than a year, he’s been pushing for the racino, which Wilmot said will create 400 to 500 full-time jobs, attract 8,000 people a day, and pump $100 million into the state’s education fund each year. Under state law, the local county and municipalities that host racinos also get a cut of its take.

Last month he took the first official step, getting approval from the Racing and Wagering Board to incorporate as the Syracuse Raceway. Wilmot hopes to go back before the board — which handles the harness racing application — shortly after February. If he obtains the Racing and Wagering Board’s approval, he would then make an application for a VLT license before the New York Lottery.

View full sizeDavid Lassman / The Post-StandardVernon Downs already offers video slot machines in its casino, located 40 miles away in Oneida County.

On Thursday, Wilmot revealed few details about the raceway, a complex with a racetrack, grandstand seating for 2,000 to 4,000, a casino, a buffet restaurant and bar and lounge. He said he’s dropped plans to renovate and use the state fair’s racetrack and grandstand.

Instead, he’s looking at one site “near the fairgrounds” and a second elsewhere in the county. He said the land under consideration is held by private owners, the county and the town of Geddes. Wilmot visited Geddes on Wednesday to meet privately with town officials.

Town Supervisor Manny Falcone said he’s excited about the prospect of new jobs and commerce. “I feel as good as I did back at Christmastime when I found out about it,” Falcone said after meeting with Wilmot. “I see a lot of positives.”

Others are excited, too. A billboard went up in recent days outside Daniella’s, the steakhouse inside The Inn at the Fairgrounds on State Fair Boulevard in Geddes. “I think it’s great,” said Charlie Roman, of Daniella’s.

Wilmot, who saw the sign and appreciates it, has friends in higher places, too. Lt. Gov. Robert Duffy, the former mayor of Rochester, said Thursday he knows Wilmot personally and professionally. “I think it’s a very intriguing idea and one that has great merit,” said Duffy in Syracuse, though he said he wanted to know how local leaders felt.

The Wilmot family donated $56,000 to the campaign of Gov. Andrew Cuomo and Duffy, his running mate.

But the developer may have others to win over before the raceway can become a reality. First, there’s the lingering fallout from Aqueduct Racetrack, a back-room deal that prompted a scathing rebuke last year from the state inspector general and led to a more open bidding process for a racino at the state-run track.

Now some say the Aqueduct mess could prompt a change in how the lottery director will judge Wilmot’s application.

Bennett Liebman, the executive director of the Government Law Center at the Albany Law School, said Thursday that Aqueduct’s troubles shouldn’t affect future video licensing. What might prove more harmful, Liebman said, are complaints by existing racino owners about plans by an Indian tribe, the Stockbridge-Munsee Band of Mohicans, to open a casino in the Catskills. The move has drawn complaints statewide from some racino owners, who fear competition for the gamblers.

View full sizeDavid Lassman / The Post-StandardVernon Downs owner Jeff Gural fears that Thomas Wilmot's plans would put his racetrack and casino in Oneida County out of business.

That same fear has Vernon Downs owner Jeff Gural reeling over Wilmot’s plans. “It would put Vernon Downs out of business,” Gural said, adding he thinks state officials won’t award another racino license if it siphons money from existing raceways like his, which is located 40 miles from the state fairgrounds, in Oneida County.

Wilmot dismissed Gural’s concerns, saying that he’s willing to work on a plan so the tracks would not have overlapping race days.

That leads back to the convention center hotel, the lynchpin in the racino proposal, at least from the county’s point of view.

Since 2004, the county has worked with developers to construct a hotel next to the Oncenter, without success. If investors don’t want to build, asks Sen. John DeFrancisco, R-Syracuse, then why prop up the hotel with another business? “To go through these gyrations of getting a new license for VLTs to justify a hotel, it’s fraught with problems every step of the way,” DeFrancisco said.

Assemblyman Bill Magnarelli, D-Syracuse who helped secure that $15 million for the hotel, disagrees, and says no one in his district has complained about the proposal.
But those elected state officials don’t get a vote in the deal.

Onondaga County Legislator Rich Lesniak does. The Legislature’s Republican majority leader from Baldwinsville voted last April against bringing off-track betting to the county, but said he’s not philosophically against gambling.

What Lesniak wants is a hotel to bring more convention business to town. “I don’t care how it gets done,” Lesniak said. “I need that hotel. Are we going to swing enough votes to get it done? At this point, I think it’s kind of up in the air.”